Strawberry Ginger Jam: Sugar and Spice, Very Nice.

After my shoot yesterday with my Buhay Baboy friends Ram and Jho, Jho and TJ dropped Ram and I off at Eastwood Mall. Ram went to cab it to Valle Verde since he'll be attending a party there when I decided to stay over at Eastwood Mall. Last I was here was after doing makeup for Legally Blonde and I like this mall since it's such a pet-friendly mall. I spotted a really cute chowchow puppy and a million shih tzus bobbing their way. I didn't know that every weekend, there would be this little food fair at the second floor. I browsed a bit to see if there's anything that caught my interest and I re-discovered this stall that sells homemade jam. I didn't know the name of the brand but I've tasted some flavors at the Ultimate Taste Test a few months ago. I did remember getting a leaflet, which I somehow misplaced. Anyway, going back to present time, I saw the stall and recognized the jars which look like the old-fashioned jams I see in vintage postcards. Stuff that remind me of checkered aprons, country homes, Ann of Green Gables series... you get the idea.

The name of the stall was Green Babes In The City and they distribute the jams I was looking for. They also sell cheese, sardines, bottled laing, and veggie chips They also have organically grown green produce like dressed whole chicken, eggs, and meat. Nothing like the home-cured and homegrown foods from gramma's backyard eh?

I found out the name brand - The Fruit Garden - and these are homemade jams were made the old-fashioned way with real fruit and real ingredients. - nothing fake or imitation . Old-fashioned way meaning, sugaring and boiling and all that. They use an original French homemade recipe, those that have been passed on from generation to generation. Again, it's like gramma making fresh jam for you and spreading it on your toast.

A bestseller was the Strawberry Ginger.. It won me over since at first it had that sweet-tart strawberry flavor then a kick of spicy ginger taste. She also made me try other concoctions. I decided to go with her personal favorite though and bought a bottle for the house.

This bottle costs Php 140 for one. It's great for Christmas giveaways but I guess I'll be stocking this up at the ref a lot, among 2 other flavors I find interesting - strawberry mint and mango lavander. The mango lavander had a really well, cute flavor. It feels like a spa in my mouth and I love this with biscuits and earl grey tea.

Normally, I'm not a bread person. I prefer rice over bread anytime, but I could make quite an exception with this as the spread. Aside from the fact that it's all-natural and cooked the very traditional way, spread it on bread and look at the consistency:

Fruit is pureed and it's just jam. Commercial jams actually have these strawberry chunks that I find annoying since it ruins the momentum I have when I spread it on bread. This one just glides right there. Okay, it may not be like 100% smooth due to the presence of some fruit fibers, but it doesn't have like that glob of fruit making the consistency chunky instead of fluid. This is the type of jam I'd have over ice cream, cereal, yogurt, or just dip my finger or spoon in. Since it's preservative-free, it only lasts for like a few weeks or so, but I don't think they'll last that long on me.

In fact, normally I'd get bored with bread but I had four slices of bread with milk tea for breakfast. You know what's great? Strawberry ginger jam tasted great with Conti's chicken empanada too. The ginger part blended well with the chicken fillings.

So what's my opinion on the other flavors? The strawberry mint was interestingly mellow. The mint came from chopped mint herbs so you get a sweet and tart but refreshing flavor instead of something that tastes like strawberry juice mixed in mouthwash. Mango choco and mango vanilla would be for those with a sweet tooth and for those who would want to reminisce a fun night by the beach they have something for you: Pineapple coco rhum.

Do I have to go all the way to Eastwood for this? They have several locations as it appears on their website and they're even available at the airport. You could also order from Green Babes in the City (greenbabesinthecity@gmail.com) or at the website. The Fruit Garden jams have various distributors all over Metro Manila when I saw the locations and they also have in Cebu. I was able to pinpoint a few locations down south for this as well as in Makati.

Okay... now I feel like doing a Joey Tribbiani now attacking a bottle of jam with a spoon. :P

Chicken-All-You Can Burpday with Max's (and new dishes too!)

Max's chicken has been iconic for almost all of us and I have yet to see someone who has not attended a birthday, baptism, wedding, and/or function in Max's. Their fried chicken paired with Jufran banana ketchup is treat to anyone and the meat is tender we have to keep coming back for more. Max's invited a few bloggers last week to celebrate with them as a way of saying "Thank You" for years of patronage. For that night, they resurrected the recently-concluded "Chicken All You Can" only for us. Yay! And who wouldn't resist to the limitless Max's fried Chicken?

I like Max's fried chicken fresh and juicy and piping hot as it arrives at my table.

The perfect companion to bottomless chicken is none other than banana ketchup. Would you believe that I finished 1/4 of the bottle for my first piece?

Yeoh first experienced Chicken-All-You-Can in his hometown in Naga. Rice would be our perfect companion to neutralize and desaturate our chicken. In moderate amounts of course.

After we stuffed ourselves with chicken, this is what's left of the pieces. They're not called sarap to the bones for no reason. Combined, we do not reveal how much Max's chicken we had.

Aside from treating the bloggers to Chicken All You Can, Max's also introduced to us two of their new dishes. First up is binagoongang baboy with manggang hilaw shreds on top. It wasn't too salty and I like the contrast the manggang hilaw gives. In fact, I'm glad there's manggang hilaw in the first place. What's bagoong without that, come on? The thought of manggang hilaw and bagoong makes me want to get the nearest green mango.

Another dish is their chicken caldereta. Caldereta got me smiling from ear-to-ear. I can't cook the dish from scratch but I love it and I would go to anyone who could cook a mean spicy pot of it and thank that person for lifting the sunshine notch a good ten miles. This caldereta is no exception and with Max's chicken, I had to keep lunging for this and Yeoh had to stop me.

Group photo-op, as you could see, all the bloggers are happy, full, and content.

It was a happy birthday for Max's Restaurant and with the banana ketchup bottle almost empty (I prefer soaking my chicken in ketchup and chili), I left with a happy smile too. (Note to self: Vegan for two days) . Thanks Max's for celebrating your birthday with us.

Me and My Big, Fat BoNa Muffin

It's my day off. I have no shoot or work and it's a weekend. Whoopeee! So one Saturday, I was just at BoNa Westgate after a low-salt lunch at Teriyaki Boy at South Supermart. Okay, this wasn't such a dead day since I had to go to St. James the Great to fix some papers as well. On days like these, I just like to relax.. no makeup and no glam. So out comes the big t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. Usually, I'm seen all girled out but nothing beats a day when I just don't want to worry or care about how I look and just enjoy a day where I'm not working instead of bawling that I have nothing to do.

I really missed BoNa, practically since I'm at Makati or QC most of the time and the only BoNa branch there is is so out-of-the-way (Westgate). Tin and I like the old one at BF where we meet before heading off to shoot since it's quieter, smaller, and easier to reach if you're not driving. Tin told me they have a new site already in the BF area still. I sure hope so.

After ginger tea, I wanted their freshly-baked pastries. The girl in the counter told me to wait for the chocolate-banana muffins which are currently being baked. Once they were done, I ordered one.They smell good. :) Freshly-baked muffins get me high and crazy.That's a big muffin. :) A big, big muffin. Took me an entire afternoon to eat it because unlike commercially-produced muffins, this one's big, heavy, and full of real ingredients. :D

Early Morning Affordable Breakfast at Rodic's

I had an early-bird client today at QC and since I was in the QC area anyway, decided to stop by the main campus of my alma matter. While my client and I were talking, she was like "Omigod, you're going to Rodic's!" It's still quite famous apparently for their tapsilog, a popular spot among students and faculty and apparently (in our case) UP alumni.

Rodic's is a tiny snack bar tucked in at the U.P. Shopping Center in Diliman along with the bookstores and photocopy centers. Do not expect a fancy setting like your neighborhood fastfood. It's just plastic monoblock chairs, fans for ventilation, and a little narrow staircase to the second floor. It was a morning crowd for early-bird students who needed to get some photocopies done, parents buying sandwiches for their kids (it was UPCAT time when we went there), and a few joggers.

Yes, dears Rodic's setting is canteen-style, alive and kicking since 1949. Everything's clean, of course, which I like. The simple atmosphere could just make me go there in my field work uniform of shorts, big t-shirt and tsinelas with messy pony bun and glasses.

A tapsilog meal costs only Php70.00. As soon as I placed my order, the food was ready to serve even before we took our seats.

One bandehado-full of real rice, real meat, and fried egg right in front of me. Unlike some tapsilogs where there's more litid than meat, we have soft, sweet, flaky meat just like corned beef. It was really cool mixed with the rice and it even tastes better when you mix in the vinegar and onions. I had wolfed this down in minutes down to the last rice grain and meat bit.

That's my plate after breakfast. Imagine, what I would usually spend for one meal for breakfast I get for two (drinks included, no house water here) at Rodic's. It was a busy morning for Rodic's though, considering there were students too and parents coming in as they waited for their kids taking the UPCAT, but the service was amazingly fast. The meat was sweet and soft, not something I'd have to wrestle with just to get to bite-sized pieces.

Will I go here again? If it were not so darn far I would. But yes, If ever I'm in the QC area again during this hour I'd go for Rodic's tapsilog anytime.

Shrimp+Garlic+Hungarian Sausage = Greenwich Stuffs Me Again

Before I hit the sack, let me share to you what I had for dinner with the boys. For my food blog, pictures would best describe everything.

Okay, obviously I didn't devour the whole thing. If you've seen the latest commercial, that's Greenwich's newest concoction, the garlic and shrimp pizza. What I have here is the thick crust version, but as you could see below, they also have a thin crust version.
I'll choose shrimp at the drop of the hat when given a choice. Although I'm not much of a heavy pizza eater now unlike back then but shrimp is my weakness and yes, I have to have this.
I had five slices of pizza today. With that much shrimp on your pizza, who wouldn't resist? Don't you love it that they're not stingy on grilled shrimp that when you slice the pizza, shrimp just falls off the slice? Yay also to the green bell pepper slice to neutralize the rich taste of cheese, garlic, and shrimp.

For those who are carnivores by choice or due to seafood allergies, the Hungarian Sausage and Bacon Overload would be a better choice. Here's a picture of the thin crust version:

Bacon, Hungarian sausage, barbecue sauce, cheese, nuff said. Meat lovers would prefer the richer flavor on this one. This is best served with hot sauce.

Definitely burp burp burp during dinner. I find the shrimp and garlic pizza the more addicting one. I would prefer it in the thin crust variety though so I could enjoy it more as a thicker crust could fill my tummy up quicker. When I'm with my carnivorous friends, I would go for the Hungarian Sausage and Bacon pizza to share with them but I'll be having my pasta aglio olio on the side. :)

Revisiting Dad's Ultimate Buffet

If you're a kid of the 90's we'd always remember that every graduation dinner would be celebrated at DAD'S. Back then, people would line up at the sushi bar, have their pastas custom made, or line up for turkey with cranberry sauce or steak.

It's been more than a decade since my grade school graduation and now I've decided to visit the Makati branch and give it a go.For Php645.00 you do not only get to the Dad's Buffet but also the Kamayan and Saisaki Buffet. Anyway, so my first stop was the Dad's Buffet where my servings were devoured first before I got to take a picture of it. I had the Dad's Paella, which didn't disappoint me with the seafood servings, and lots of vegetables as usual. The buttered vegetables have always been my favorite so I got quite a large portion of that. I noticed also that they've added tomato and mozzarella at their bar. Meat was not scrimped so I asked for the steak and piled up on pepper sauce. The pepper sauce overflowed to the buttered veggies section on my plate, but they tasted well together.

Halfway through munching on my nachos, the waiter asked for our drinks. And you know what? Each drink you order happens to come with a cute little critter like this:That's an upgrade from the Triple V balloons back then. And yes, I gotta take this little doggy home. Dad's also has their merienda buffet for Php 149.00, available from 3 to 5 pm, which are perfect for late lunchbreaks. The stuffed creatures don't come with the drinks at that time though.

Anyway, after my trip to Dad's it was time for the Japanese corner. Of course, with me and Japanese food, the first thing I look for is the sushi bar. And into my plate went the melt-in-the-mouth salmon sashimi, kani sushi, tuna sashimi, and sashimi that I never had in my neighborhood sushi place. Then, I hopped over the tempura section and got myself my prawns and kani tempura. The salmon sashimi practically melted in my mouth so I had to go back for it. Saisaki though was the first resto that made me love sashimi and sushi, and I did know for a fact that they were raw fish.



This is the view from my seat. The Kamayan or Filipino section, and that's a halo-halo bar I'm staring at, beckoning me that there was still a third section.

I had to choose the thick corned beef sinigang as my soup, which tasted like it was made from real tamarind instead of the powdered kind. The chunks of corned beef were present for the carnivores too, and I'm talking big chunks of beef.Staples in my plate in the Filipino section is kare-kare, seafood, and bagoong rice. Why the small portions? I'll tell you so later.
When dessert came, I immediately went for my favorites:Cream puff, leche flan, gelatin, and sapin-sapin. That's one piece of puto bumbong in the lower left, that they cook right on the spot with those smoking pipes thing that they do every Christmas. Not shown again is the gelatin and pinipig concoction I created from the halo-halo bar.

For buffets though, my tips to really enjoy the experience is to go for small portions first, so you get to experience everything without going overboard. That explains why my plates aren't filled. Since this is a no-leftover buffet, I went for small portions of what I like, hence seafood and vegetables. If there's something that I like, then I go back to it. Another tip I share is that I skip rice. Rice tends to fill me up more and since I could have rice anytime, I'd rather make room for those that I can't have everyday like the steak or sashimi. For specialty rice like paella or bagoong rice though, I still go for small portions, albeit a spoonfull or less. My philosophy though in experiencing buffets is rather than going for quantity of portion, I'd rather go for variety, so I get to taste more. Normally too with buffets, I go for just water since the sugars in drinks like soda and iced tea tend to fill up my stomach more.

Php645 isn't actually bad for the buffet. It's for those who are on a budget who want to treat out their friends visiting from other countries. It's smaller compared to buffets I see in hotels, but it's good enough. I still like that it had its family-friendly vibe over the years and it gives children the chance to explore food aside from cheeseburger and fries.

Sweet and Soft Treat: Bizu Chocolate Souffle

With a dessert as good as this, it's okay to be sinful once in a while. Bizu's Chocolate Souffle was a melt-in-the mouth treat I instantly fell in love with, never mind if it came with ice cream, which the lactose intolerant in me should avoid:The souffle cake is actually on the right. The one on the left is dark chocolate syrup which you pour (drool) on the cake before eating it with vanilla ice cream (center). A souffle is actually a light and fluffy baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites. It's quite difficult to make since it entails careful monitoring of temperature so the cake doesn't sink and it maintains its fluffy consistency. They usually are baked in ramekins, which is the technical term for those grooved white porcelein containers.

The container may be quite small, around 2 inches or so in diameter but the richness and flavor makes it a suitable dessert to share for four hungry sweet-toothed girls. The hot chocolate sauce isn't too sweet for me to have a headache after and it blended quite well with the sweetness of the cake and ice cream.
I just love how the sides puff up when I pour the chocolate and the syrup just sinks in to the cake making it moist. Oooooh.... guilty pleasure indeed!